Mustangs Sweep Up, Win CIF Regional Finals

At the start of the CIF Division II Regional Finals, the fans at Irvine Valley College were led to believe this was going to be a tough, long battle. Mt. Carmel High came out with fire and steady offense to put the Mira Costa Mustangs on their heels.

Yet, as is Costa fashion, it came back with great offense, defense and execution to take over and end it the way most people had predicted, with a 3-0 sweep.

With the Mustangs' all-star lineup, Mt. Carmel didn't stand much of a chance. Mira Costa also was coming off a great week of preparation after a disheartening loss in the CIF-Southern Section Division I finals to Los Angeles Loyola.

"This week we just tried to get their heads back to having fun, enjoying it, the camaraderie," said Mira Costa head coach Mike Ninnis. "Last week we had time to scout the other teams, see what they were going to do, but this week, we didn't know who we were playing until the day before and you know, our practices were much more relaxed this week."

It was clear that Costa was feeling good and ready to play once they got a few errors out of their system at the start of the first set. They came out with a 25-18 win to start the match.

As the second set began, Mt. Carmel came out strong, staying even with the Mustangs. At 14-13, Ninnis took a timeout, which gave Costa the break they needed to come back out and dominate the rest of the set, finishing 25-18.

The third set was similar to that of the first two, with Costa making errors early on, but taking control and finishing out the set strong.

Mt. Carmel was able to sneak a few kills and an ace in at the end of the match, but a Eric Mochalski kill finished it off.

Seniors Kevin Donohue and Mochalski led the way with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Mochalski added in four aces on the night, gaining him the Player of the Game award for Mira Costa.

With four players headed to Div. I college programs next year, the Mustangs had a clear advantage. Not to mention, their level of experience and number of appearances in the playoffs and finals was far superior to that of Mt. Carmel.

Ninnis said he was extremely happy with the way his team played.

"We had a tremendous season,'' he said. ''When you look back on the season as a whole, we went 37-2, we won two big tournaments, we got third in another, we made it to the finals of CIF. We just didn't quite get over that last hump."